At last the Nation came to know about the causes of Pakistan Cricket team’s disgraceful exit from the recent World Cup in the Caribbean as the Performance Evaluation Committee submitted its report after “thorough” investigation into the debacle.
Keeping aside the findings lets first look into the composition of the committee which comprised of former Test players Ejaz Butt, Salahuddin Ahmad and Salim Altaf. Many people believe that Salahuddin Ahmad and Salim Altaf were the employees of the board and had no right to be part of the committee, because they can not give any verdict against a serving PCB employee or employees. Therefore doubts were raised over the impartiality of the report. But the question is, that do we really need such inquiries after a defeat? Such an inquiry team was also constituted after the 2003 World Cup in which Pakistan were knocked out of the first round, it blamed Waqar Younis, the captain, for the debacle but what Pakistan Cricket learnt from that report? Nothing is the shortest possible answer.
Apart from criticising the former captain and a few recommendations, the review committee in 2003 also advised that the new captain should be based on the following
- Leadership qualities
- Should be a firm part of the playing XI
- Aggressive personality
- Leading from the front
- Should command the respect from the team members and officials
Were all the recommendations were taken into consideration while appointing the captain after the 2003 world cup? By going through the above mentioned recommendations the answer is no, then was it the sole responsibility of Inzamam?
After the World Cup disaster, the history of Pakistan cricket has repeated itself as everyone is after Izamam-ul-Haq by forgetting his services for the Pakistan cricket. The former Pakistan skipper is still regarded as the best batsman under pressure therefore I am very hopeful that the great Inzamam would steadily go through this tough phase of his life as he did many times when Pakistan team was in trouble.
Inzamam is considered as the most powerful captain in the history of Pakistan Cricket but was he really the one? People might have forgotten the era of Imran Khan where dictatorship was of the highest order as it was reported that he even used to draft the playing eleven on his own, but he was delivering therefore not criticised that much.
Going back to the ICC Champions trophy in India where Inzamam because of the ban in the wake of the Oval fiasco was ruled out and the vice-captain Younis Khan refused to lead the side by saying that he did not want to be a dummy captain. Why did Younis feel that he would be a dummy skipper although there was no Inzamam in his way, means someone else in the board was not willing to give Younis the authority. On the other hand, if Inzamam was powerful then the board should be held responsible to give him that liberty, what Mr. Saleem Altaf had been doing because he has been the director cricket operations since more than two years why did not he intervene if Inzamam was trying to run the show alone?
In the past it was reported that Inzamam and Saleem Altaf were not on good terms because Saleem Altaf reportedly wanted to appoint a friend of his as Manager but Inzamam put his foot down. This was not the only occasion when Inzamam showed defiance, during the recent South African trip, Inzamam reportedly asked Chairman Nasim Ashraf to stay outside the dressing room as the boys got nervous in his presence.
The above two instances were reported by the press and if a captain is blamed for exercising his due rights and tagged as “dictator” then this is simply unjust. Talking about the Oval controversy, where Inzamam refused to take the field hence faced a ban. How only Inzamam can impose his will when the whole battalion of the PCB was at the Oval including the chairman. What were they doing there, why did not they either force Inzamam to go in or sent a team to the ground without him? The fact of the matter is that one cannot become a dictator overnight, he must have been provided with the freedom by succumbing to the player’s power, hence, the Pakistan cricket structure has come out as an ultimate looser. This setup should be overhauled rather than shifting blames upon others and the practice of constituting review committees after a defeat should be shunned. Why a committee is not formed when a team does well and tributes are not paid to those performed well?
The task of the Performance Evaluation Committee was pretty simply because finding the causes of defeats in the world cup did not require rocket science, we actually had lost half the battle when Muhammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar were left behind as they were supposedly not fit, why the cricket setup of the country was not able enough to provide the national team with an appropriate replacements of Asif and Shoaib? Was Inzamam responsible for that? I think no, but the cricket administration should be held responsible because they have not been able to prepare backup players, then why the review committee did not take them to the task? We went for the World Cup with a new opening pair after tried some 20 combinations since the 2003 World Cup, whose responsibility was that and had any board official was asked about this deficiency of the Cricket setup? Moving to the match against Ireland which was humiliating no doubt, but the wicket was blamed for the defeat, again the question arises that who is responsible for not preparing difficult tracks at home to keep the boys prepared for challenging situations? The committee should have concentrated upon other aspects then Inzamam to find out the real cause of Pakistan cricket’s downfall.
Top
Muhammad Asif Khan [Karachi, Pakistan]
Email: mak374@hotmail.com
|
|
